Thoughts To Ponder

Hi everyone. I am home sick today....bleh.... I had a fever yesterday - I think that is gone today, but I have a head cold and just feel pretty awful. I'm hoping a day of rest will help a lot!

Anyway, Michael and I have gotten very involved in our church here. He leads worship some, I play some and run sound, and we are both part of a leadership team for the worship team. I've really enjoyed having the opportunity to serve by doing things I love, and the people that I'm getting to share life with are awesome! We have a community group that meets once a week that is made of up those people who are involved in worship teams. I wanted to copy and paste the latest entry from that blog to show you what we are currently pondering and discussing. It's something that has been on my heart, and I'm curious as to your thoughts. It's kind of long, but I think you'll enjoy it. Leave a comment if you dare! :) Love you all....

"This week at Community Group, we are going to be answering a question that is similar but significantly different than the one we started with back in early September. Recall that we began with the Hebrews text that begins, "Let us throw off everything that hinders..." setting the stage for our conversation on barriers that keep us from experiencing a growing life with Christ.

We brainstormed together and came up with a number of barriers: time (or the lack thereof), priorities, lack of motivation, exhaustion, the need to "feel" close to God, the consumer culture in which we live, and more.

But in the few weeks that we have been discussing these issues, something else has emerged entirely... something that pushes us beyond these answers and towards something deeper and more significant. Each of these answers are real, yet while not meaning to diminish their importance or discount the extent to which they hinder our life with Christ, something deeper lays at the root of them all. It is a problem that I'd like to discuss with you all this week.

The problem is this: we all seem to know what we're supposed to do. We know we're supposed to spend time with Jesus in prayer, reading God's Word. We know we're supposed to stop sinning. We know we are supposed to get involved in God's great story of redemption, calling a broken world back to Him. We know we have to make time, set priorities, get motivated, devote energy, and resist the negative cultural influences around us. Look, studying more about setting priorities is not going to help. Discussing the mechanics of prayer will be fruitless. Even working through Bible Study techniques may be a waste of our time, for one simple but deeply disturbing reason: We all know what the answers are. We just don't want to do it.

Why the &*$%# not?

This Thursday, you are invited to a conversation behind the conversation. Our first attempts at discerning barriers to life with Christ were good and helpful in pointing us in the right direction, but (and you can kick back at me on this if you disagree) they were all on the surface. Something, perhaps many things, lay deeper in the murk of our souls; something that keeps us from living out and embracing life with Jesus to its full extent.

Are you satisfied with your current experience of life with Christ? Or do you find yourself wondering, "Is this all there is?" Do you find yourself doubting the validity of Christianity based on the dramatic lack of real world experience of the living God within you and among His people? Are you going through the motions, believing it to be true but failing to experience it in your life? Are you saved from sin and death, but while knowing what you've been saved from have you figured out how to grasp hold of what you're saved to ?

Here's our excerpt to discuss for this week. Short, but surprisingly revealing to those of us who have become overly-accustomed to this life of faith:

A happy Christian met a beggar one day, and said to him, "It's a grand thing to be saved."

"Aye," said the peddler, "It is. But I think I have something even better than that."

Incredulous, the Christian inquired, "What can you possibly have that is better than salvation?"

The beggar replied, "The companionship of He who hath saved me."

As I said, this week at Community Group, we are going to be answering a question that is similar but significantly different than the one we started with back in early September. The question we're asking is this: What's really going on that's keeping us from living with Jesus in the richness and fullness of faith? We all know what we're supposed to do; we just don't do it. Why not?"